I’ve always been one of those famously nice guys, you know the kind who spends their money on others more than themselves, one of those guys who’s everyone’s big brother. I just can’t help but fall in love with all my friends.
When I was 8 years old and at the zoo I saw someone my own age crying because he wanted a ice cream bar. In my naivety I empathized with him and bought one for him with my own money. He was happy for a moment, but when his mother saw she was furious, she took it away from him and yelled at me that he wasn’t allowed ice cream. Then my babysitter, who was the one who took me to the zoo in lou of my parents, scolded me on the matter as well. And so I learned at a early age that being generous did not necessarily make the world a better place.
With this in mind I tried my best to do good but the results were always what was most important to me.
I found that many people, rather than use my help to stand on their own became dependent on me. I had to ask myself:
Should I still feed a man fish when he isn’t interested in learning to feed himself?
Perhaps… perhaps the kindest thing I could do is to not feed the man, because without food for himself he would be more motivated to learn.
And when he did learn he would gain more than independence, he would find pride and confidence in his ability with every fish he caught and this, this would carry over to other aspects of his life.
Arnold Schwarzenegger famously said-
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
I know this all too well from personal experience.
And I’ve met too many people disabled by overly supportive mothers who do everything for them. My roommate Ryan is a good example. His mother used to schedule all of his appointments, insisted that he needed help doing simple things like navigating the city and she was right, he didn’t know how to do these things on his own. But guess what, when he stopped talking to mommy he LEARNED. He just told me he’s much happier doing things on his own. Certainly we all are.
When I looked at people suffering mental disabilities I found that there were severely disabled people living on their own, and those who were very mildly disabled who were totally dependent on their parents. The difference between the two is the one living with his parents was given a too supportive environment, he was told that if something was hard for him he didn’t have to do it. The guy who lived on his own struggled a lot but he got by, because his parents never expected anything less. He was held up to the same standards as other kids and sure he struggled but he got by.
Listen to this: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play=366&act=1
It’s a fantastic story.
Socrates, the father of philosophy and trolling realized that the kindest thing he could for his beloved city was to become a social gadfly(It’s a great word look it up if you haven’t heard of it, I certainly was unfamiliar with it prior to researching Socrates).
Our lives used to have a simple meaning one universal to all animals: To find food, shelter and pass on our genetic material. But we clever humans, after 300,000 years as a species wandering the earth were able to solve all three of these by inventing Agriculture, Houses, and Adult Friend Finder.com.
But every time we satisfied one need a new one arose in its place, until we reached the need to find needs.
The search for purpose.
Many ask themselves for what reason am I here?
What am I supposed to do with my life?
Well I can tell you you were supposed to spend your life hunting and gathering as you produced children to pass down your genetic code.
But that’s gone now, and as wonderful as this world is its also too easy.
You could say society is a lot like a overprotective mother, coddling us and making us weak by making our lives carefree.
So I fully intend on making our lives harder.
You might not fear the beast but you shall fear me.
For I troll
And I troll
Because I love you.